Learning from unexpected deaths

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While Australia celebrated Harmony Day on March 21, 2015, another day recently past almost unnoticed. It represents an inequity within Australia that is poorly understood and seldom discussed. Continue reading →

It is a well-established and widely-known fact that when it comes to driving, speed kills. But does that make low-speed harmless? To answer this question, let’s get behind the steering wheel and go on three, short, low-speed journeys. These journeys all occurred within the state of Victoria, Australia during 2011. Continue reading →

Sixty-year-old Joan Williams (a psudonym) had just parked her black BMW in a parallel parking space on Glenferrie Road, Hawthorn, Victoria, Australia on March 17, 2010. Mrs Williams picked up her handbag from the passenger seat, checked her mirror then opened the drivers door, inadvertently striking 22-year-old cyclist James Cross who was riding to university. Mr Cross was propelled onto the road and in between the carriages of a passing Mack truck towing a five tonne Hercules Tipper. The truck driver heard a bang and looked in his mirror to see Mr Cross being run over by the trailer. Mr Cross died instantly.Continue reading →

It was a hectic morning for Andrea Boe, mother of two and matriarch of a self-described average American family with both parents working full time. Before arriving at work on 28th June 2006 she had fed her youngest daughter – five-month-old Kate Lola Boe – and dressed her in a new pink dress.Continue reading →

October 2013 in Perth, Western Australia, the father of an eleven-month-old child went to pick up his son from childcare. The staff advised him his child had not been dropped off that day, leaving the father confused as to the whereabouts of his child. Upon returning to his vehicle the father found his son buckled up in his child seat – deceased. Continue reading →